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KD6-3.7 quietly stood from his bed, turning to look over at the half-asleep Lars that reached out for him. He took her hand and leaned forward, placing a kiss on her forehead.
“I’ll be back, baby. I just need a smoke,” K whispered. “Can’t sleep.”
Lars nodded. “Check on Court?”
“Sure.”
K stepped toward the door and shut it cautiously behind him, so as not to startle Lars. He grabbed a pack of cigarettes from a miscellaneous drawer in the kitchen, dread blooming in his chest as he noticed his lighter wasn’t there.
He bit his cheek and walked over to the guest room, peering in behind the barely-opened door.
“Courtland?”
No response.
K eyed the main area again, and his heart sank slightly at the sight of the unlocked door at the front of the house. He opened it and walked out, and his nose immediately picked up the odor of cigarette smoke.
“Courtland,” he set his eyes on his brother-in-law, who immediately looked down and away, shoulders raised as if preparing to take a hit. K could practically feel the guilt lingering in the air. “You shouldn’t be smoking.”
Six didn’t reply. K sat down in the chair next to his, taking out a cigarette and holding it out to ask Six to light it. He did, and the pair briefly made eye contact before K stared off in the distance.
“Are you gonna tell Lars?” Six asked, voice dripping with guilt.
“I have to,” K replied bluntly.
“..I know.”
“Are you burning yourself?” K turned to face him again.
Six nodded begrudgingly. There was no point in hiding anything from a replicant.
“How long have you been out here?”
“Thirty minutes, maybe.”
K bowed his head in understanding before returning to silence.
Six took a long drag off his cigarette, letting smoke fill his lungs for a moment before coughing it out.
“I’m not mad at you. I know that doesn’t make you feel any better, but I’m not mad at you. She isn’t, either. Nobody is.”
Six shook his head. “I know.”
“Can I help you with your wounds?”
“…Can I finish my cigarette?”
K nodded again. “Should I go?”
“No,” Court replied, a little too harshly.
K silently acknowledged, pressing the end of his smoke into the ashtray that sat between them, and waited patiently for Six to finish. It was mostly just trees around, and it had been for years, but K still struggled to grasp that they were real. That the world he was living in was real. That he was living. That he was no longer someone else’s weapon.
That seemed to be something his brother-in-law was still working on understanding about himself.
“How long has it been?” Six asked.
“Two months, three weeks, five days and thirteen hours,” K responded as if automated, “since Noah Calhoun’s suicide.”
“What am I supposed to do?” Six sighed heavily, continuing to smoke with a sharp inhale. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. Do I work again? Do I put it all behind me? Should I just..” He trailed off.
“You’re welcome to stay here as long as you want. I won’t let anything happen to you, by your own hands or someone else’s.” K fidgeted with the sleeves of his coat.
“I’m not worth saving.”
“I’m not saving you.”
“Right. Built to kill.”
K nodded, apathetic. “Are you ready to head inside?”
“..Yeah. Sure,” Courtland put his cigarette out and stood up, setting the box and lighter on the table.
K followed suit and opened the door for him, locking it and snatching an ice pack from the freezer before making his way to the bathroom.
The agent sat on the floor, and K knelt down next to him, carefully pushing the door shut. He held a hand out and Six showed his right forearm. There were two burns that immediately caught K’s eye, and one that was less severe, though they were all close together. K assumed he had been in too much pain and pulled it away before it could damage his skin as much as the other two.
K wasn’t one to judge. Not in the slightest.
He gently pressed the ice pack onto the wounds, expressing no surprise at the wince Six gave.
“You okay?” The replicant pulled the compress off and turned to grab a first-aid kit from the cabinet below the sink.
“I’m fine. Been through much worse,” Court replied.
“I know.”
“…I’m sorry,” he muttered.
“I know.” K handed him the ice pack and opened the medkit, examining the contents for a moment before taking out a gauze pad and setting the kit on the ground next to him. “I’m not bothered.”
The cold sting on Six’s skin was a familiar sensation, but it hurt all the same. He imagined he would have built a tolerance, but it didn’t seem to get easier, no matter how many times he did it.
Maybe it wasn’t about how much it hurt.
“I shouldn’t have come here. I shouldn’t be wasting your time.” Six let his arm rest in K’s grip as he dressed the wounds.
“You aren’t wasting my time. It’s best spent helping you.”
“You should be sleeping. Lars needs you at her side.”
“I’m not worried about losing sleep. Lars is alright on her own. She asked me to check on you.”
“..Really?”
“Yes,” K nodded, grabbing medical tape and securing the loosely wrapped bandaging. “She loves you. So do I.”
“I love you too,” Six replied, “And her. More than words can describe. She’s the best sister I could ever ask for, and you’re the best brother-in-law that could take her side. And I’m fucking you up with my.. this.”
K closed the medkit again and put it back, setting the ice pack in the sink before sitting back down. “Courtland, I can assure you that this does not bother me. If anything, I appreciate that you’re letting me help you.”
“I don’t have a choice,” Six lied.
“You do. If you wanted to, you would have gone with him by now. You’re still here. That means something.”
“It means I’m a pussy.”
“Quite the opposite. Suicide is a coward’s way out.”
“…I miss him.”
“I know,” K shifted to sit next to Six, who immediately laid his head on his shoulder. “I tried to kill myself, in the end of my days in the LAPD. When I thought I’d lost Joi. She was all I had in the first place.”
“How?”
“Let someone get the upper hand in a fight. Tried to lie down and let blood loss run its course. I wanted to die with honor. Or let other people think I did. Your sister found me. Saved my life, helped me recover Joi. I found there was so much more to the world.”
“There’s no getting Noah back,” Six sniffled, and felt the replicant’s arm wrap around him. “..I hate him. I hate that I miss him. I hate that I hate him. He shouldn’t have left me here. Not with so much of his life ahead of him.” He paused. “Our life. He wasn’t supposed to leave. He wasn’t supposed to betray me like that.”
Unsaid words lingered in the silence between Six and K. Nothing needed to be said. K turned to pull him into an embrace and was immediately met with a sobbing mess. He paused, watching Court bring his hands to his face and whimper like a child. He pulled his coat off and draped it over Six’s body as he held him.
Six leaned into him. He’d had enough of keeping himself steady.
“I’m not going anywhere.” K’s voice was monotone, but to Six there were few things more comforting. “I’m right here.”
“I’m trying,” the agent wept, “I don’t know why it’s so hard. I do so good and it all falls back down. I thought I was making progress.”
“You aren’t losing it. Relapse doesn’t mean you’re back where you started. How many times did you burn yourself?”
“Three,” Six replied. He already knew where his brother-in-law was going with this. “Barely.”
“That’s less than any other time you’ve done it in the past three months.”
“I still did it.”
“You stopped. And it wasn’t because you were scared. You do want help. You don’t know how to ask for it.”
“..You sound automated.”
“To some extent, I am. But I’m also your brother.” K rested his chin on Courtland’s head.
Six took a deep breath. “I forget that. You’re more human than half the people I’ve met.”
The replicant didn’t reply. He heard footsteps faintly growing closer, but silently assured himself it was just Lars, and flicked his gaze to the door as it opened.
“…Is everything okay?” She asked worriedly.
K nodded and beckoned her closer, to which she promptly knelt down and put a hand on Six’s shoulder. She smiled as he turned up to face her, gratitude lingering in his tear-stung eyes, and invited herself into the hug. Her husband let his arm fall to his side until she nodded to him and he leaned in again.
Six let his head hang forward before cautiously relaxing the rest of his body, falling into K and Lars. His sister couldn’t help but giggle a bit.
“Love you,” she whispered to both of them.
“I love you too,” K responded.
Court took a moment before replying; “..Love you.”
“I could cook some breakfast if you guys want to stay up.”
“It’s only two,” her husband raised an eyebrow.
“So what?”
“..Hm. It’s up to Courtland.”
Six nodded. “Yeah, sure. You’re a good cook. Always cheers me up.”
“Okay!” She nodded, hesitantly pulling away from the hug and standing up, watching the other two follow suit. She quickly examined her brother to ensure he was alright, aside from the obvious.
K slipped out and into the kitchen, returning his cigarettes into the still-open drawer and throwing his coat over his shoulder. He sat down at the counter and gazed out the window. The moon was shining just bright enough not to be obtrusive, and stars dotted the sky, beautiful as always. It was difficult to see the night sky back in Los Angeles; he would never grow bored of looking at it now that he could.
Lars preferred watching the clouds pass by and pointing out their shapes. Whatever made her happy made K happy. He loved her so much. And he loved Court, too. Brotherly love wasn’t something he’d ever understood until he’d met him.
Love was something that KD6-3.7 felt very human about.